Maverick X Peak (Long) 2021

Maverick X-series Snowdonia Long 2019

Crazy long drive to Wales - just made the 'cutoff' at Snowdon Ranger Youth Hostel! Woke before 6 after a fitful night and just made it to the start in time.

The day was hot and remained dry throughout. I'd already decided to drop to the LONG (26m route) from the ULTRA but realised that if I started with the ultra bods I'd get an extra hour on the course - and I could drop down a level later (this is allowed). I need all the time I can get!

The plan was to power hike up and down Snowdon using the poles and then 'race' after that. I didn't want to burn myself out so early in the race and I knew from watching videos that a descent down Watkin path wasn't runable at all. Just get up and down in one piece with some quads left. 

It was worrying how tough even power walking was from a CV POV, I made it up [1:45] and down in good time but still missed the cutoff by about 15 mins. 

[View from the back of the pack #1] 

I've come to the sad realisation that if I'm going to beat cut offs I don't have time to take a single selfie (which doubles as a 'hey family, I'm still alive and on course' message) or stop to enjoy the view or smell the roses (there are no roses on Snowdon). Which is a real shame cos on a clear day like today you can see the sea.

 

Approaching the summit.

Just back down from the summit. 60 mph headwinds.

Pretend you're having fun!

Descending Watkin was OK because I was extremely cautious, until I started getting overtaken by the elites who'd started running the LONG at the proper time and were overtaking me like gazelles with death wishes. You can't help speeding up and it's a recipe for disaster. Forcing myself to slow down and run my own race meant I still fell flat on my back onto razor sharp slate but at least I did it at a leisurely pace. 

Finally made it off the mountain onto a gloriously flat tarmac road ... and twisted my ankle. Almost in shock at my own stupid clumsiness I started running the last few yards to the aid station. They informed me I was officially on the LONG route now as I'd missed the first cutoff (no problem) but in my mind I was doing everything to get out of the aid station before they noticed me limping and pulled me completely. 

Running up to this point had been bearable but a few minutes of standing still had made it painfully seize up. I entertained thoughts of dropping, or being forced to drop but after a few minutes of jogging along the road I settled on a policy of 'relentless forward motion' to see what that would bring.

My revised race strategy consisted of:

• start taking ibuprofen now
• don't stop for anything unless I have to
• no fixing feet (I'd never get my shoes back on)
• rely on the poles - at least with a completely busted ankle I had 2 'crutches' with me. 

Yay for poles!

Problem #2 - Water. Trying to beat the cutoffs at the second aid station meant I skimped on water and ran out before the third. Thank God for trail angels! A family that lived in the middle of nowhere were outside their house with buckets of fresh water and a hosepipe waiting for idiots like me to come along. 

Problem #3 was the 'other' two 'hills'. On paper they were dwarfed by Snowdon. Sadly I wasn't running on paper. They were terrible. This kind of terrible - 

[The view from the back of the pack #2]

 That's just a tiny bit of what the 'easy part' of the race looked like.

Problem #4 - Water (revisited). While I was having problems putting enough water into me, I was having no problem putting me into water. Fording rivers - ugh! Boggy marshland meant I was constantly getting up to my ankles and once up to my knee in peat. Wet feet and dragging half of the Welsh countryside along for the ride with me. A winning combo.

 I've got to admit as I tried and failed to keep within the cutoffs, my mental soundtrack was "Why am I doing this?" by the artist formerly know as "You're really crap at this". The poles probably helped me preserve my ankle, but slowed me down because I was still using them on runnable bits (there were a couple). It's tempting to blame the injury but I don't think I would have been much faster if I'd been uninjured. It was my overall fitness on the climbing that let me down.

I ran most of the last 4k (which included a suicidal, involuntary, gravity-assisted sprint down the approach road to the Ranger Path) and crossed the finish line a wreck of my former self, 40 minutes after the cutoff (1:40 really, if you include my early start).

9:40

I chugged a coke till my lungs threatened to explode, and then sat in a deck chair, scared to take my shoe off.

I covered 26 miles in 9:40, sprained my ankle, scraped my elbow, fell down five times, I also tripped over my own poles once, took a mouthful of dirt and waded through bogs. On the plus side I got a nice medal, a very nice T-shirt and spent some quality time with my son. 

UPDATE - Typing this up a few months later, the disappointment at being so slow has faded. I think I did all right - 26 miles anywhere is still a big achievement, let alone on Snowdon, and I shouldn't discount the mental resilience needed to finish with a sprained ankle.

I like the Maverick races, but the cutoffs are extremely challenging. UPDATE The 2020 races that have been announced have more generous cutoffs and (to my mind) easier routes. 

[Good photos by Phil Hill and Jake Baggaley. Other photos by me.]

Get To The Pub By 4 Ultra - Bedford (2019)

A crazy ultra where everyone starts at different times with the intention of all finishing at the same time? I'm in! Especially when I heard it was organised (and I mean that in the very loosest sense of the word) by James Adams who featured in the Barkley Marathons film The Race That Eats It's Young (now showing on Netflix) as Woefully Unprepared English Man.

I suspect this was a combination of self effacing English humour and Hollywood editing as anyone who completes even one loop of the Barkley is a stone cold freaking legend of ultrarunning.

I started off in the 9:30 wave, leaving me 6 1/2 hours to 'get to the pub' having been warned that the 50k was actually 32.7 miles. We were giving detailed instructions such as 'TL, TR', 'Mind your head' and 'stop to read a lovely poem'. Needless to say I was getting mildly but repeatedly lost in the first 4 miles (as I was constantly being reminded by a lady with a Garmin who informed me I was "having a really bad day". Ah the camaraderie of the trails!).

Around that time I remembered I had attempted to load the gpx file into an app I'd downloaded on my phone. Hallelujah! There it was! Remarkably I still continued getting lost after opening the app, but at least now I was confidently lost.

Making better time I made a few new friends, Carl, an heroic ex-army guy who's run the London Marathon in 45lbs of kit and done Race To The Stone TWICE, and Barrie who races in sandals and has run the Copper Canyon Ultra in Mexico with the Tarahumara Indians. 

Running with others gave me a real boost. I found I could piggyback on their pacing meaning I needed less willpower to keep going.

Pounding away in the sun, we headed through an aid station in someone's front yard (with runners popping in to use the loo) and off onto a section we had been warned bore no relation to the GPX whatsoever, thrusting us back onto the vague and cryptic directions. As 3pm came up I found Radio5Live and listened to Liverpool beat Southampton. 4pm came and went and it was closer to 5pm when I finally got back to Box End Park. The park was full of people doing water things and those big banners things that usually mark the end of a race. I headed for some only to realise they lead straight into the lake. I ran over a bridge asking bystanders for direction to the finish line. I ran between 2 small traffic cones, one of which was knocked over. "Is that the finish line?" I asked. "Yes". "Oh. OK."

I 'got to the pub' by 4:45pm! coming 20th out of 35 finishers. It took me 7:15:00. 

Relief.

After lying down, soaking my feet in the lake and getting changed I finally 'got to the pub' - on my own as people were still waiting on other runners to come in, and had an ice cold coke - as I was driving straight to London afterwards. 

It was a mad race, but a good one. Feet swollen, one tiny blister and very tired of course, but I haven't destroyed myself and should be back training by the end of next week which was the goal. 

I'd like to do the race next year, if it happens, but the crazy thing is, if I'm a better runner this time next year, my handicap will be greater, so the race will keep getting harder!

Dukeries 40 2019

My longest race to date - 40.8 miles

8:39:08

91st place out of 109 finishers

Beautiful course -

Sherwood Forest (including Robin's Tree!), Cresswell Crags and Clumber Park.

       

Well organised (thanks Ronnie/Hobo Pace!), great volunteers and amazing soup!

My Two Broke Guys buddy Tom crewed for me as he had to DNS due to injury.

Very much a game of 2 halves.

First 34 miles - beautiful weather, feeling good, regular walk breaks worked well. Didn't quite eat/drink enough but felt OK and hit the last aid station slightly ahead of pace for an 8 hour finish.

Last 6.8 miles -Torrential rain, very bad tendonitis in right foot extremely bad tendonitis in left. Lost all sense of how much further to go and lost heart. Slowed to a crawl. Begun to doubt I was even still on course.

Lessons learned

Cheese, salami and honey bagels are the food of champions. But my post race ones need to be quartered and put in zip lock bags in case I want to eat them during the race.

Sweet chili mini kebabs seemed a good idea. But they really weren't. Salty is good. Spicy is not.

Don't discard the polypocket for your map even if it's really sunny. I did and when the rain came my map turned to mush and I had no clue how far I was from the end - which messed with my head.

Never trust anyone who tells you how far the finish line is. A fellow runner told me we were less than  two miles from the finish. We were at least five. That hurt.

Don't put your coat over your hydration pack. When it rains take your pack off and get all your rain gear out and then put it back on top. Having my coat over the bag made it too much hassle to get to my rain trousers, food and water. So I didn't.

Big shoes (size 11 for my size 9 feet) were definitely better for my toes - they didn't look like minced meat this time - but I don't know if the tendinitis was down to the miles/hours or the shoes.

I need to relube half way round - toes, crotch, butt.

I need to lube my entire butt crack - sorry folks TMI! I can't say for certain if the relative lack of pain in my hips and legs is just due to the agonising fire of chaffing in my nethers.

The 5:1 Run/Walk ratio (20 min run, 4 min walk) became a 4:1 then a 3:1 then a 2:1. I briefly flirted with a 1:2 and spent the last portion 'running by feel'. i.e. "I feel terrible, so I'm not running". In principle though it's a good idea, especially on races that don't have much vertical.

I had my running playlist going and popping in the ear buds when things got dark helped, but I wouldn't want to do a whole race that way.

Top Tunes

1) Here - Sho Baraka
2) I'm A Believer - Tedashii ft Trip Lee, Soye
3) Walk All Over You - AC/DC
4) No Sleep Till Brooklyn - Beastie Boys